Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research Vol. 35, September 2010, pp. 206-212 Study on hybrid yarns integrity through image processing and artificial intelligence techniques Mehdi Gholipour Baradari, Dariush Semnani a & Mohammad Sheikhzadeh Department of Textile Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 84156-83111, Iran Received 12 August 2009; revised received and accepted 23 December 2009 The commingled hybrid yarns of different structures have been used to investigate the variation in their abrasion resistance over those of simple yarns by calculating the abrasion destruction index. The cotton yarns of the counts 20Ne and 30Ne and cotton-polyester yarns of the same counts (20Ne and 30Ne) at 20, 40 and 60 bar pressure, have been commingled using flat and textured polyester yarns of 150 den. The produced samples are then abraded by a standard metallic object at four different stages including 150 abrasion cycles in each stage. Through image analyzing technique, the abrasive damage of the samples has been investigated and the abrasion indexes are calculated. The Kohonen neural network is used to cluster the samples in 5 classes as per their abrasion resistance. The cotton-polyester yarn (30Ne), hybrid samples from cotton (30Ne) and textured polyester at 20, 40 and 60 bar; and the hybrid yarn made from cotton-polyester (30Ne) and flat polyester at 60 bar are found to be the best. Furthermore, the abrasion resistance of samples improves on increasing the pressure of commingling process. Generally, cotton yarn and textured polyester yarn show the better abrasion resistance in comparison with the other samples. Keywords: Abrasion resistance, Artificial intelligence, Cotton, Hybrid yarns, Image processing, Polyester 1 Introduction Abrasion plays a very important role in textiles. Abrasion resistance is one of the most effective properties of yarns that affect weaving ability, serviceability, and durability of the yarns. Yarn is subjected to abrasion during textile processes due to the interaction in between metal, fibre and fluid. This abrasion is high when the yarn is rubbed against a rough harsh metal surface. It is important to know how several yarns produced from different fibres act against this condition. Some procedures such as finishing processes or illustrating on yarn lead to improve the abrasion resistance 1 . Properties of spun yarns depend on their nature, methods of production and spinning system used. Hence, the selection of yarn properties and method of evaluation or measurement in relation to abrasion resistance is difficult 2 . When a spun yarn gets abraded, it is possible that the fibres pull out and eventually the end of these fibres are abraded; consequently, because there is no other force except the one between yarn and abrader due to friction to stop the movement, fibres situation changes. If this movement is accompanied with a frequent force, it causes the fibres to pill and the yarn to rupture. Changes in yarn appearance, yarn rupturing, yarn pilling and thin places in yarn body are some results of fibres pilling during this process 2 . The first standard method to evaluate the abrasion resistance of yarns was developed in 1970 by ASTM. In this method yarn was subjected to a constant rotational abrasion up to its rupture. The number of cycles was reported as the indexes of yarn abrasion resistance 3 . More resistant yarns can bear numerous cycles than weaker ones. But this method was unable to evaluate the extension of destruction caused by yarn abrasion. In the present study, it is attempted to compensate this shortage by determining an index of abrasion. There are numerous parameters that affect yarn abrasion resistance, such as fibre quality, yarn twist, yarn count, spinning system, resin on yarn or fibre body and yarn mechanical properties 4 . Another study 5 shows that by increasing the yarn twist, the abrasion resistance of yarn increases. Also, by decreasing the yarn count, the friction ratio between yarn and abraded object is increased by the exponent of 2(1-n) than the yarn diameter 6,7 . On the other hand, surface roughness, fibre adhesive property, shearing and cutting occurrences during abrasion process have been found to be the most important factors affecting yarn abrasion resistance 8 . —————— a To whom all the correspondence should be addressed. E-mail : d_semnani@cc.iut.ac.ir; dariush_semnani@hotmail.com